On 'Alligator Alcatraz'
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It feels personal, like a letter sent by a friend, where I walk away having learned something new and inspired to do something different.
LISTENING: to the anxious thoughts in my head
FEELING: sick to my stomach
SEEING: stupid bills pile up on my desk
Do you know the feeling of getting a call to hear that a loved one has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement? I didn't. Not until Tuesday night when my mom called me, scared, that her brother — my tío, the only one who's ever been a big part of my life — had been detained.
His papers were in order. He had Temporary Protected Status and a work permit, but my tío had struggled with alcoholism. ICE grabbed him during his probation hearing. In the eyes of a violent, fascist state, my tío is a criminal. Is addiction a crime? Is unresolved trauma a crime? Is showing up to your hearing a crime? Is cleaning yourself up a crime? Getting your life back on track? Repairing the relationship with your family?
I'm sick with fear and anger and helplessness. Many Americans today know these feelings well. Since Donald Trump took office, ICE has more than doubled its daily arrest rate, reports The New York Times. On average, the agency arrests 666 people a day. Every person thrown in cuffs by masked agents is a universe. Each one of them has loved ones. They all have dreams. They all have their demons they're battling. They all deserve justice.
I wonder where the state will send my tío. Will they give him the medicine he needs? We still can't get clear information on where he is or where he's headed. All we can do is wait and call legal aid societies and wait some more until they call us back. Will he be sent to El Salvador right away? Will they hold him captive elsewhere? Will they send him to Florida, where the state has collaborated with the Trump administration to set up tents to house thousands of migrants along the Everglades?
Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and a coalition is growing in Florida to defend the people and the wetlands the state so loves.
"Alligator Alcatraz" is a temporary tent city the government built in a matter of days to house up to 5,000 immigrants. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier gave the facility this moniker. Florida Mayor Ron DeSantis is celebrating the center's construction, saying in a news conference, per NPR, "What'll happen is you'll bring people in there, they ain't going anywhere once they're there unless you want them to go somewhere, because, good luck getting to civilization. So the security is amazing — natural and otherwise."
The attempted weaponization of nature is egregious, especially given the ugly history of white racists using Black children as "alligator bait" in this country.
On Tuesday, Trump visited the facility, which is already facing fierce opposition. Last week, several environmental groups filed suit against the prison, citing the critical ecosystem and human lives that are at risk. Trump and his goonies pushed this facility through without the proper environmental reviews, prosecutors argue. The lawsuit notes:
The Big Cypress National Preserve area where the TNT Site is located is known for its wetlands, critical wildlife habitat, and protected species, including the threatened wood stork, and endangered Florida bonneted bat and the Florida panther. The Site is within an environmentally sensitive freshwater wetland ecosystem of ecological significance for wildlife habitat. The Site is important for drinking water supply and Everglades water quality.
"This reckless attack on the Everglades, the lifeblood of Florida, risks polluting sensitive waters and turning more endangered Florida panthers into roadkill," said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. "It makes no sense to build what’s essentially a new development in the Everglades for any reason, but this reason is particularly despicable.”
I spoke with Thomas Kennedy, a policy consultant for the Florida Immigrant Coalition who has worked on immigrant rights for over 10 years, to get a sense of the situation on the ground. He expressed concern over the dignity and human rights of the people who will be detained there, especially as Florida enters hurricane season.
As the press descended onto the site Tuesday for Trump's visit, a storm passed, causing some flooding that a local reporter shared on X. He reported that the state said tents are supposed to be able to withstand Category 2 winds, but how can we trust that's true? If one small storm can lead to these floods, how will the tents fare when a real hurricane shows up? How can families rest easy if one of their loved ones is held there?
"There's no brick and mortar," Kennedy said. "People are held in these tents that seemed quite flimsy [Tuesday] during a regular Everglades summer rain."
Putting thousands of people in such a vulnerable active hurricane zone is "irresponsible and dangerous," he went on. This is why coalitions are so important, especially between groups fighting for both immigration rights and environmental protections.
"We have a detention camp being built on historically Indigenous lands and environmentally protected lands," Kennedy said.
On Thursday, a coalition, including GreenLatinos and the Sunrise Movement, sent a letter to Miami Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners asking them to sue the state and federal governments to help stop the facility's operation. According to Kennedy, the state and federal government seized the land without the county's permission (the county is the land's technical owner) and have yet to pay anything for it. Advocates hope that the county will join them in fighting the administration's attempts to bring immigrants to the site.
The attack on immigrants and people of color is heating up in the U.S. I don't believe that these prisons are just for undocumented people or so-called criminals. Trump himself said as much during his visit to Florida this week: "They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that’ll be the next job that we’ll work on together."
The administration is attempting to explode ICE's budget through its reconciliation bill. ICE's budget will be larger than most countries' military budgets. Trump plans to grow his army of masked agents. He's made clear he doesn't plan to be stopped.
My family is already under threat. How long until it is yours? 🌀
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